I've seen the teams that are in the European Conference League and honestly, unless you field youngsters throughout the entire tournament (which I doubt if you get to the latter stages), there is absolutely no reason for you to not win the damn thing. I would have felt the same way if we'd finished 7th too. The quality of the teams, for the most part, aren't great, it's a third-tier European competition and your spending power/squad strength should vastly exceed all the other teams in there, even with Villarreal and Roma in there. You won't get a better opportunity to win silverware than this tournament. It all depends on how seriously you treat it.
I haven't seen a competition trophy overcompensate this much since they first unveiled the Premier League trophy please log in to view this image
I agree that we should be favourites but Roma and Villareal would both likely finish in the top half of the PL and will be no pushovers. There will also be 8 Europa league sides coming in too. In practice it won't be much easier to win than the Europa League
Do you really believe that teams who finish 3rd in their Europa League group will be a tangible threat to you in the ECL? Come on. You should be winning this tournament fairly comfortably in theory. And I really do not agree with the bit in bold at all. It is much easier than winning the Europa League.
It should be a similar job at the group stage as there won't be much difference between the weaker teams and we will avoid all the stronger ones. The Europa league knockout stage is definitely harder, particularly for the group runners up who have to face a CL third placed team. By the time we get to the quarter finals though the difference in quality might not be so apparent. In both competitions we would need to beat 3 teams who are about the same standard as mid premier league which tripped both Spurs and Arsenal up in cup games this year
I've heard Villarreal can be hard to beat. Incidentally, if they win the UEFA cup, don't they get back into that competition?
They qualify for the Champions League. They finished 7th, so they're in the Conference with us if they don't beat Pen Utd.
Meh - gives us a clear run at focusing on the league and can get rid of more deadwood with less games to play. Enjoy playing 70 games next season with 30% of them in some random Lithuanian and Georgian villages.
Teams that have won/competed in the Europa League in recent years: Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Napoli, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Sevilla, Valencia, Ajax, Lazio, Borussia Dortmund, Man Utd, Chelsea, Benfica None of the teams you play will be of that calibre, I assure you.
I think that teams need these games to justify a decent squad size and keep a lot of those players happy. There have been exceptions of course, but it's tricky to handle if you've only got league games and possibly some domestic cups matches.
He was gonna go with Unai Emery telling you how many consecutive seasons the Goons will be out of the CL for ...
I agree, but a lot of players this Summer either have one year left on their deals, contracts expiring, were loan signings or have expressed their desire to leave (albeit granted not always easy to fulfil requests due to wage demands etc). Luiz, Ceballos, Ryan and Odegaard are leaving (for now). Lacazette, Kolasinac, Guendouzi, Nketiah, Chambers and Elneny all have 1 year left on their deals. Willian, Bellerin and Torreira have all requested to leave the club. I also can't see all of Nelson, Willock and Maitland-Niles staying on, either. Then there's obviously been rumours about first-team players like Leno and Xhaka requesting to leave, too. I expect a busy transfer window this Summer, especially in terms of outgoings.
I don't know why you'd move on Willock, Nelson or Maitland-Niles. You should be building around them, Saka, Smith-Rowe, Martinelli and Tierney. Clear out virtually all of the rest of the squad and basically start again. Way too many overpaid passengers.
Given that Arteta persisted with Willian for so long - and even when he wasn't playing, he had him in the squad instead of Nelson - that suggests to me Arteta isn't a fan of his. He was offered three chances to go on loan and rejected each of them to try and fight for his place. He still couldn't get into the squad. I'll be amazed if he's part of the first-team next season. Willock is a strange one. He got 8 goals in 14 games for Newcastle, which is outrageously good, but I don't know if Arteta will guarantee him a starting berth, especially as midfield is an area where we're looking to invest in. In terms of technical ability, he's quite a bit below where we need to be. And it's difficult to know whether his form was a flash in a pan or whether he's capable of sustaining that vein of form. Do we cash in now when his stock is at its highest or do we persist with him and risk his value dropping if he doesn't quite do it for us? I had a chat with the Geordies about Willock: https://www.not606.com/threads/willock-thankyou-and-goodbye-your-always-welcome.393123/page-2 As for Maitland-Niles, it's not clear what he wants. He had a real chance to make the RB/RWB spot his own, but his infatuation with wanting to play in midfield is what led to Arteta dropping him and subsequently being loaned to WBA. He did OK there, but didn't pull up any trees. Pereira aside, you can say that for most of the WBA team, but I don't think he's done anything to change Arteta's mind on his position at the club. Agree with the rest, though. We've shifted so much deadwood the last two years and still have more to go.
Most of our fans are hoping we start a similar process this summer. Got a lot that needs moving on if we're to ever begin moving forward again. Too many holding us down like an anchor.
